73 Silverton restoration photos

It occurs to me that it might be a better plan to post photos to one thread rather than to start a new one everytime I want to upload a couple of pictures.

So....I'll start here with three photos of my roughed in cabin sides and add more to this thread as I go. A while ago I read somewhere that "you can never have enough clamps". That' surely the truth.

Should anyone see any issues with what I've done by all means sound off. If I overlook something I can easily adjust it now.

Regards,

MIA

 

No, you can't have enough clamps or more correctly, "damn, I don't have enough clamps . . ."

Edge glue those mahogany planks on the work bench where you can dog them down easily. Place pads under your clamp feet so you don't leave clamp bruises.

You're on your way MIA. Is the plywood on the deck a protective cover? I seem to remember you were working on it too.

 

Thats the deck material that you can see in the photos. The underside of the ply is all glassed but I'm not ready to do the top yet, so it is unfinished.

The decks are just tacked into their supports so that I can work on the cabin sides

I finished the cabin sides today. The plan is to:

1. Frame up the windshield area. This might take me awhile.
2. Remove the cabin assembly
3. Pull the side decks
4. Secure the deck supporting structures
5. Glass the cabin sides and window assemblies in the shop
6. Install, screw down, bung and glass the decks
7. Install the cabin windshield and sides
8. Install the cabin top
9. Glass cabin top, sides (again if necessary) and fair everything up.

I'm going to try to do all this in a 36 hour period to get a good chemical bond. Having prefabricated all the parts and dry fit everything I think it will go pretty smoothly.

Then I'll catch my breath and get ready to paint.

Regards,

MIA

 

Hi Folks,

I spent the weekend framing up the windshield area. This was by far the most challenging part of the project. I'm not an engineer by trade, and this is my first attempt at this. I think what saved me was a pretty extensive grounding in mathematics.

So I essentially built this using math (trigonometry). The idea being if you have an angle and a leg of the triangle you can determine the lengths of the unknown sides. I knew the windshield raked back 45° and I decided to bring the centerpoint forward 15° which looked about right. The hard part was shaping the top and bottom of the frame to the camber of the cabin roof and deck. I did my best with a calculator, jig saw and sanders.

The idea is to place the windshield glass on the mahagony "shelf", top and bottom. There will be glass support on the sides, but those small pieces are not visible in the photos. I wanted to use a tounge and groove arrangement for strength and to lock everything together. It's not perfect, some of the joints are perfect, but others are off a little bit....never the less it's solid. As someone new to carpentry and engineering I have to say that I'm surprised at the strength one can attain with a good wood structure!

Regards,

MIA

 

You're doing fine. No wonder it's strong, look at all those angles you've triangulated in. Welcome to the wonderful world of yacht repair. Now you know why most of us drink heavily.

 

No photos today. As I was loading the Silvertons engine, trans and v-drive into the pickup to run down to the boat, arghhhh!!!!!

Geez......got my index finger caught in the tailgate. Just about ripped the end of the finger off and it's still bleedin' 9 hours later. You ever have something hurt so much that you don't even bother to swear? Well, wrapped the finger in a few bandages and a shop rag and just kept going. Got the engine down there anyway, so it wasn't a total lost day.

It's going to be tough putting screws in for awhile.

And I thought all I had to worry about was saw blades!

MIA

 

yes you are doin fine BUT see the frame bottoms between the mullions?
well next time draw a fair line with batten on the frame and push the deck to it, as it is now you have a very unfair line, buttut have some pts for doing this

 

you're right whoosh, that was the hardest part by far, trying to get those frame bottoms fair to the deck. You see, the original deck was fairly flat. This was clearly not good as it didn't shed water very well. When I made a new deck I increased the crown some. It's not huge, 3 inches over 10 feet at the widest point, but better than it was. Anyway, I struggled at first to determine how to draw a fair line in the lower window frames. I used a compass and scribed a line into a vertical piece of scrap plywood mounted where the frames were to go. This was fairly easy. I cut out the radius and then scribed it onto the bottom of the frames at a 45 degree angle. Now I had what I thought was the correct line, but had to cut the frame. This was the hard part. I used a jig saw and jig that I'd set up to hold the frame in place. The jig saw blade tended to wander around quite a bit due to cutting at this 45 degree angle. I got the angle as close as I could and then used sanders to get even closer, but you're right it is wavy. SInce I'm within 1/8" at worst, I figure that I can fill the gaps with thickened epoxy and then fair the front and back sides with microballoons.

I think that I could have done better with a band saw, but alas that's the one saw that I don't have yet.

Regards,

MIA (a temporary three finger typist)

 

The wood butcher's friend, epoxy is. You're doing fine, don't sweat over epoxy joints, they just need to be fairly close to save goo, but nothing approaching tight.

 

if you take the foot off a hand electric saw you can with a quaility blade cut a really fair curve, the drill is hold the guard back, sight over the saw blade edge, and JUST sink the blade through Its far more accurate than a jig saw, but be careful ) else you will be typing one handed No, its actually very safe, we cut all our curves in alloy plate this way, as with the foot on the saw skids It ids also far faster than jig saw and off course big pieces are no prob
cheers
Stu

 

Busy, busy.......

Well we got the engine in a couple of weeks ago and I'm back to working solo again on the decks.

Thought I'd post a few photos.....

Down goes the Ford 302...hope that I can it get lined up easily in the spring.

Next two photos show a backer being installed between two side deck panels. The backer was bedded in 5200 after this photo was taken. The ventilation collector boxes were hand made in my basement last winter. I couldn't find any manufacturered boxes that would work so I made my own.

Forth photo shows the transom deck looking from starboard side to port side across the back of the boat.

Last photo shows the port side deck (aft) underside. The deck was bedded in 5200 and screwed. It's coated in epoxy and 4 oz. cloth. I plan to paint it to protect from UV reflected light with paint left over from the decks and cabin.

Thanks for looking!

MIA

 

Busy, busy....(continued)

Two photos on left show side decks glued and screwed.....

I'm wondering if someone will have a comment about my "bunging method". I didn't like using all the wooden plugs on the douglas fir decks. So I decided to use epoxy to fill the holes. The picture is a countersunk screw with straight or "neat" epoxy filling the hole. I've since found that microballoons added to the resin make sanding down a lot easier. It's really not that much work and I have to sand anyway. The holes are filled as I'm sealing the deck, before the fiberglass cloth goes down.

Last photo shows side deck being sealed.

The goal is to get the cabin built before the weather here in upstate NY gets too cold...we'll see.

Thanks for looking,

MIA